My family got sick to death of my playing U2’s The Joshua Tree over and over on the stereo, and it’s hard to believe that was 20 years ago. Billboard reports the album is getting a deluxe reissue treatment, with a remastered version appearing in four different formats: single CD, a 2-CD set, a 2-CD set with a DVD and a double vinyl album.
I love the b-sides from that album, which were released two at a time per single. The a-side was 45 rpm, the b-side 33 1/3, and over the course of three singles, the extra tracks totaled to six. (Four singles were released from the album, but "In God’s Country" contained album tracks on the b-side.)
For the sake of portability, I dubbed the album onto a 90-minute cassette tape — so state of the art! — and used the b-sides to fill out the rest of the space. The extra tracks make for a nice extended complement to the album itself, and in some ways, they’re more interesting.
The Joshua Tree was a dark album, but the b-sides were even darker. "Walk on the Water" and "Deep in the Heart" feel as black as the album cover art of the period. "Luminous Times" starts off deceptively slow and seethes to a dramatic end. "Spanish Eyes" and "Silver and Gold" provided the hooks, and they could have fit well on the album. But If they were, the tone would have gotten none more black.
And no, I was not a fan of the re-recorded version of "The Sweetest Thing" on The Best of U2, 1980-1990. It was sapped of all the bittersweet heart that went into the original.
Still, it’ll be nice to have these songs in one package, especially if they’re remastered.
The next few podcasts aren’t very good, at least in my opinion. I rushed through the writing and recording of them, producing all of them in one weekend. It kind of shows. This particular show is actually the shortest of the season, and I don’t really go into as much detail as the other shows.
In Tua Nua was popular in Europe, and the band was on the periphery of a big break. U2 signed In Tua Nua to its Mother label in the late ’80s. The band gave Sinéad O’Connor a shot by letting her write lyrics to their songs. Violinist Steve Wickham left the band to join the Waterboys. But the band broke up before any of those connections could turn into real opportunities.
It was pure chance I heard this band.
Some notes:
In Tua Nua’s albums have been out of print for a long time, but last year, both The Long Acre and its predecessor, Vaudeville, were reissued on iTunes. Recently, the band’s unreleased 1989 album, When Night Came Down on Sunset, was also released on iTunes.
I include “Seven into the Sea” on this podcast, even though that track is actually on Vaudeville. On the US release of The Long Acre, “Seven Into the Sea” replaced one of the tracks from the European release.
Ivri Lider is the biggest pop star in Israel, and when he came out of the closet in 2002, his popularity grew. His albums haven’t been released on CD in the US, but they are available as digital downloads on iTunes, eMusic and Amazon. Out magazine profiled Lider a while back, and I was intrigued by the idea of gay man being the top pop singer in a country smack dab in the middle of all that religious and political unrest.
But pop music overseas doesn’t have an immediate parallel with American pop music. Lider is not Israel’s answer to Kanye West. He’s not a funk soul brother trapped in a Jewish body. (That’s Ari Gold’s job, and he does that well enough for everyone.) Lider’s smooth but slightly burnished croon is usually set atop what radio executives might call "adult alternative rock". It’s rooted as much in the club music of Europe as it is in the alt-rock lite of America.
And yeah — he’s teh hawt.
So I spent a good portion of my eMusic quota over the span of four months to acquire his four albums. I’ve listened to them, and while he doesn’t really knock Utada Hikaru and Shiina Ringo off of the regular rotation, he’s not so nondescript as to be mediocre. That’s not to say his discography is unassailable either.
Just the notion of an album of George Crumb orchestral works drew me to this recording. Crumb’s pieces seem so exclusively suited for small ensembles, it’s difficult to imagine the heavy mass of an orchestra occupying the sparse nooks and crannies of his scores. I can just picture the concert hall swallowing up his pieces’ signature textures.
It’s not surprising to discover Crumb has so far only written five pieces for orchestra, two of which were recorded by the Louisville Orchestra. Although Crumb employs the entire orchestra for the Varizioni, his economic orchestration still makes the piece feel largely like chamber music.
He makes few odd demands on the orchestra, and the piece, with its 12-tone theme, feels relatively conventional. That’s not to say the discordant bursts of strings and brass are at all tonal — this score is thoroughly modern. Compared to Black Angels or Ancient Voices for Children, Varizioni sounds like, well, music. (For readers unfamiliar with Crumb’s work, the background music for the TV show Lost is essentially Crumb made palatable for prime time.)
Still, Crumb manages to give the orchestra a workout, and the piece can be as thrilling as it is intense.
Yet another round-up of albums I won’t review. No real excuse, save for lack of enthusiasm. It’s really easy to write enthusiastically about something you really, really like or something you really, really can’t stand. It’s hard to write about things that don’t actually illicit a reaction, even worse, reactions that could go either way.
the brilliant green is set to release a new single on Dec. 12, so says Bounce.com. The title of the single has not yet been determined, but the new song has been described as a medium-tempo ballad to match the winter season. The band’s reunion commemorates its 10-year anniversary. The single "Stand by me" was released in September.
ZAZEN BOYS releases a new single titled "I Don’t Wanna Be With You" in December, so says Bounce.com. Details on the new single are forthcoming, but it’s expected to include new ZAZEN BOYS bassist Yoshikane Sou Yoshida Ichiro.
UPDATE [10/31/07 18:16 pm]: CD Japan sent an e-mail stating Dec. 5 as the single’s release date.
Last month, I had 43 downloads remaining in my eMusic quota which I forgot to use. I’ve already complained about having too much choice, and part of the reason those 43 downloads went to waste was because I wanted to catch up on what I have before I get any more. But that’s just not how eMusic rolls.
I didn’t purchase much music in September, but this past week, I went on a binge. I haven’t had time to listen to everything, but I wanted to note them now to figure out later what I want to write about in greater detail.
Like my review for NUMBER GIRL’s SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT, my original review for Shiina Ringo’s Muzai Moratorium didn’t have much depth, and I really didn’t know what I was talking about. And like the podcast for SCHOOL GIRL DISTORTIONAL ADDICT, this show is an attempt to flesh that review out. I’m so glad I never published the original version of this podcast — the script for this show was edited many, many times before I ended up with the show you hear here.
Some notes:
In the teaser from last week’s show, I used the kana pronunciation of “moratorium”, but for the podcast itself, I decided to stick with the English pronunciation. It felt weird saying certain words in proper English and transliterated words with Japanese pronunciation. So in most cases, I went with English.
The album itself is compressed within an inch of its life. There’s a big debate about how dynamic range is missing in recent albums, and Muzai Moratorium — Shiina Ringo’s entire discography, in fact — could serve as Exhibit A in that debate. Most of the albums benefited from the overall compression in the show. Not so this one.
This show is the only one so far to use an audio excerpt from a different album.
A new Utada Hikaru song, "Stay Gold", made its debut Oct. 1 on a commercial for Kaou Hair Care, so says Bounce.com. At the moment, there are no plans to release the song as a single. Utada met with producers in New York City to discuss the direction of her next English-language album, according to a post in her blog.